2 Shattering The Upward Boundary
by Daintress
Summary: Peter was looking from his own bright blue hands to Remus' blue face and back again. James was looking at the pile of blue robes on the floor. They had been black yesterday, he knew. They got us again! Sirius spat, disgusted. AU since HBP.
1. Chapter 1 The Sorting Ceremony Again

Chapter 1 ~ The Sorting Ceremony Again  
  
Muriel whispered with Marisa as the 1st years arrived for the Sorting ceremony. She had missed her dorm mates more than she had expected over the summer. Until the end of last year, she'd never really had girl friends her own age, and it was pleasant to be back in their company.  
  
Jolina Avery was sorted into Slytherin, and Muriel clapped half-heartedly. She didn't really like her, but their parents were friends. She saw the girl's eyes narrow as they fell on the Ravenclaw table. Muriel stopped clapping abruptly, and turned back to Marisa.  
  
"So, what did you do this summer?" the girl was asking.  
  
"Well, it was about a month before I could stop taking that awful potion to counter the poison. I felt weak the whole time, so mostly I just sat around with Severus and played wizard chess and exploding snap. I finished all my homework then, too. When I felt better, Sev brought over a book of hexes and we went back into the woods to duel with them."  
  
"But we aren't allowed to do magic outside of school!" One of the other girls exclaimed.  
  
"In the trees behind our houses, Papa and Mr. Snape set up an area where the Ministry can't detect magic so that we could practice." The other girls looked horrified, so she offered an explanation. "Papa is an Auror, and he thinks I should know this stuff, in case someone tries to get at him by abducting me."  
  
The girls looked at her with frightened eyes. This was not something many of them had ever thought about. All traces of their usual giggles were gone.  
  
"Who would do that?" another girl asked.  
  
"The Dark Lord, who else? You guys all have muggle parents. Don't tell me you haven't thought about what would happen if he ever came for them?" Muriel was surprised. She had thought that mud bloods would be more afraid of Riddle than she was, but it didn't seem like they'd thought about it at all. Maybe she shouldn't have worried them.  
  
She watched as a shiver passed through each of the girls. No one met her eyes except Marisa. "I've thought of it," she whispered. "And I'm scared to death."  
  
"Well don't be," Muriel said, suddenly supportive. "There are dozens of Aurors like my father who are standing up to him. And when we get out of school, there will be at least one from our dorm!"  
  
A boy whose name they hadn't heard was sorted into Ravenclaw, then, and they forgot their conversation as they clapped and welcomed him to the table. Muriel turned to look for Severus, but he was chatting with Jolina, and didn't look up.  
  
Muriel watched disinterestedly as the rest of the newcomers were sorted. Rosier and Wilkes became Slytherins, and Kyle's little brother was Sorted into Hufflepuff. She gave him a sympathetic glance. He didn't look very happy to be separated from Kyle. She understood that very well.  
  
Muriel's fingers tapped impatiently as Dumbledore reminded them all that the forest was forbidden in addition to about 200 magical toys, the list of which they could find on Filch's door (several of which were sitting in her trunk upstairs). She was starving! 


	2. Chapter 2 The Harmless Hex Ward

Chapter 2 ~ The Harmless Hex Ward  
  
"Hey Mur." Muriel spun around to find Jolina Avery and her older brother standing behind her. She forced herself not to roll her eyes.  
  
It was cool, but pleasant out by the lake, and she'd been enjoying the view of the sun dazzling the water's surface. It wasn't often that she had a Saturday to herself, but Severus had gotten three detentions in the last week for hexing Potter, and he had a lot of homework to catch up on.  
  
"Hi Jolina. How are you enjoying classes?"  
  
"Oh, I suppose they're alright." Jolina had dark brown hair, darker than Muriel's, but cut short at her shoulders. She was twirling it idly, and Muriel knew the girl was entirely put-out at having to talk to her. Avery had made her come. Muriel focused her eyes on him as Jolina answered, wondering why he'd bothered. It wasn't as if she would be offended if the girl ignored her.  
  
"Congratulations on making your Quiddich team, Avery," she said formally. She had no more interest in a conversation with him than with Jolina, but courtesy dictated at least that much.  
  
To her surprise, he grinned widely. "Thanks Mur!" She ignored the use of her nickname. He was going to continue to call her that no matter what she did to him.  
  
"Beater, I heard?"  
  
"Yeah!" He was obviously very excited about making the house team, and she and Jolina listened politely for several long minutes while he told them all about practices. It wasn't until his team captain ran over and pulled him away, mumbling about giving away team secrets that Muriel was free to look out over the lake again.  
  
Her eyes snapped back quickly, however, when Jolina cleared her throat. She had assumed that the short 1st year would follow her brother, and looked at her expectantly.  
  
"In case you didn't know it, he fancies you," she said simply. Muriel felt her eyes widen involuntarily. She swallowed and stared at Jolina, who gave her a haughty smile and walked calmly back up to the castle. She had, in one swoop, annoyed the blood traitor, and gotten revenge on her brother for making her talk to the girl as well. Not bad for a first year, Slytherin or otherwise.  
  
Suddenly Muriel didn't feel much like being outside. She took off for her common room at a run.  
  
She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't see the group of boys coming out of the castle. She fell hard on top of Peter Pettigrew, who let out a feminine shriek.  
  
"Sorry!" she exclaimed, trying to stand up. But before she could get to her feet, she heard the swish of two wands and found herself disarmed, and sprouting an anteater's nose. Sirius Black was bending over to pick up her wand, and both he and James were laughing hysterically. She dashed forward and snatched her wand from Sirius before running upstairs to the hospital ward.  
  
She thrust open the door in panic, and Madam Pomfrey looked up from her desk, the corners of her mouth twitching. "You'll want the next door over, Miss Deesia. We've formed a new ward just for cases like this." Muriel stood still, unable to believe that Madam Pomfrey was sending her back into the corridors with an animal snout.  
  
Seeing the girl's distress, Madam Pomfrey grabbed a book, and looked up the counter curse quickly. When Muriel's face was back to normal, she took her to the next ward. A sign on the door proclaimed it to be The Harmless Hex Ward. Muriel met the nurse who had been hired to watch the new ward, Madam Kinnison. The woman's eyes seemed to shine as Muriel introduced herself.  
  
When she finally got back to the common room, it was nearly time for dinner, and she was exhausted. She threw on some different robes, since hers had gotten filthy rolling on the ground to get away from Peter. She walked quickly passed the marauders, ignoring their jeers. "OOH, Looks like we're having big juicy black ANTS for dinner tonight!"  
  
"I hate them!" she exclaimed, plunking herself down next to Kyle. He had missed the whole episode, but nodded anyway. It was a well-known fact that Deesia hated the Gryffindor boys. It didn't matter what they'd done this time.  
  
Kyle was in his third year now, just like Avery. He, too, had made the house Quiddich team this year, as a chaser. The morning of the first game, Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin, Muriel watched the team leave the common room with a pang of guilt. It was getting harder to root for Slytherin as she got to know the other Ravenclaws better.  
  
Nevertheless, she walked with Severus down to the pitch. Rosier and Wilkes followed them. She caught a glimpse of the teams heading into their locker rooms. Avery turned and waved at them, and only Wilkes waved back. Muriel grimaced, and Severus seemed to pick up on her discomfort. She hadn't mentioned her talk with Jolina.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing."  
  
He looked over at her sharply. She knew better than to tell him nothing was wrong. Her emotions had always been easy for him to read, almost as if she was unwittingly projecting them to him. She sighed, hearing his thoughts, and told him about Jolina.  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Keep your voice down," Muriel mumbled. Avery had turned back to look at them now, and they were just close enough to see the smirk on his face. Severus may not want to discuss how he felt about her, but he certainly didn't want anyone ELSE feeling that way. She shook her head and looked at the ground.  
  
It was a good game. Kyle was a very good chaser, for a third year, and for once the Ravenclaw team really gave the Slytherins a run for their money. Severus watched Avery with morbid fascination, his eyes narrowing every time the beater looked toward their box, which was often. In the end, however, the 6th year Slytherin seeker caught the snitch, and won the game by a good 60 points.  
  
As they walked back to the castle, they realized that the Slytherins had already begun to celebrate. Nasty wretches that they were, they were celebrating by hexing anyone who looked like a good target. It was then that Muriel heard a very upsetting thing.  
  
"Sod off, Malfoy! You're not sending ME to the "Black and Deesia" Ward!" It was Raquel Parkinson, squealing and running from a sneering Lucius Malfoy. Muriel stopped cold and let them rush by her. Normally she would have tried to hex the blond 5th year prefect for bothering someone she liked, but Raquel's words were ringing in her ears.  
  
"The WHAT?" she asked incredulously. Severus stopped as well, looking uncomfortable.  
  
"The Black and Deesia Ward," a voice said behind her. "Or didn't you know that the upperclassmen have re-christened the new ward in the hospital wing in our honor?" Muriel whirled around, her robes fluttering behind her, to see a smiling Sirius Black. Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew were with him. All of them were grinning like idiots.  
  
Muriel looked very angry, however, and their smiles soon faded. "It wasn't my idea!" Sirius said finally. He'd thought it was extremely amusing that the school had put in a ward specifically to handle their pranks, but obviously she didn't agree. He found himself wondering if he would be visiting that ward shortly.  
  
"The only time our names should EVER be used in the same sentence is if they are separated by the word 'despises.'" She said scathingly. She saw Severus trying not to smile out of the corner of her eye. She turned on her heel and went back inside, fully intending to sequester herself in the library while the Slytherins had their victory celebration.  
  
"Snot," Sirius muttered, as they watched them leave. Remus gave him a funny look, but James and Peter were already heading toward the Great Hall. Lunch would be served any minute! 


	3. Chapter 3 Into The Forbidden Forest

Chapter 3 ~ Into The Forbidden Forest  
  
"You want to brew WHAT?" Muriel hissed. She and Severus had managed to land identical detentions for a week with Professor McGonagal. She'd caught them hexing the stone tiles outside the Gryffindor common room to scream when stepped on, and she hadn't thought it was nearly as funny as they did.  
  
The stern witch looked up sharply, but since Severus wasn't looking at his friend at all, but bending over the book she'd given him, she chose to ignore it. Shaking her head, she went back to grading papers. It regularly astounded her that these two were among the most intelligent of her students, but also the most often to be found in detention.  
  
Still, there was something endearing about the quiet defiance of young Mr. Snape and the playful intelligence of Miss. Deesia. Though they were by no means her favorite students, she found herself smiling as much at their pranks as those of the marauders in her own house. When she was alone, of course.  
  
"It's a color change potion. You can change the color of someone's skin with your wand, but then it can be reversed that way too. If we slipped them some of the potion, it would take at least a week to wear off, depending on how much they drank. No one would be able to reverse it until it wore off." Severus was speaking so softly that Muriel could barely hear him, but she caught the drift.  
  
"They'll be furious!"  
  
"You mean, like you were, after Potter transfigured your nose into an anteater's?" he asked innocently.  
  
Muriel rolled her eyes. It really was long about time to get back at him for that. "Alright, what do we need?"  
  
"Nightshade's poisonous!" she whispered as her eyes scanned the list he passed her. "And so are these berries. Unless you plan to swipe them, we aren't going to be able to get them. And you'd better make the potion, because if we mess it up, they'll be dead, and we'll be in Azkaban for sure."  
  
McGonagal was looking at them over the tops of her glasses and they fell silent. But as Severus walked her back to Ravenclaw tower, he explained. "We can get the nightshade and the berries in the forbidden forest. They aren't poisonous in these quantities."  
  
Muriel stopped abruptly. "Are you crazy? You have to harvest nightshade at the full moon, or it doesn't work. I have NO desire to be in the woods with a bunch of werewolves running around." She shuddered, wondering if Lupin spent the night of the full moon in the forbidden forest. "Besides, the full moon was last week, and that means it'll be another month before we can do it. We'd have to stay over Christmas."  
  
She'd been relieved when he explained that the potion was relatively harmless, but wasn't looking forward to trotting around the forest at all. Twelve year olds had no business in there.  
  
"We'll go on our brooms. Malfoy says that there's not much undergrowth, so we should be able to stay in the air most of the time." Severus had a smirk on his face and Muriel knew what he was going to say next. "If you're scared, I'll harvest the nightshade myself and you can stay in the air the whole time."  
  
She stuck out her tongue. "Really, do you think I'd let you do that?" she asked witheringly. When had she ever let him do all the interesting stuff? He smiled, satisfied. When she reached her room, she collapsed into her bed and fell asleep almost immediately, sparing only a moment to wonder when she'd get her homework done.  
  
By the next full moon, both she and Severus had several new reasons to seek revenge on Black and Potter, although they'd managed to pay them back in kind for most of the hexes they'd been hit with. It was turning into an all-out war. Even the Professors were careful not to walk down the hall near the marauders, Deesia, or Snape.  
  
Muriel threw on an extra cloak and took a last look at the book her father had sent her for Christmas. She'd asked for an invisibility cloak, but he'd sent her a book with an invisibility spell in it instead, and a very difficult spell at that. She practiced several times in front of the mirror, irritated to find that her feet never seemed to vanish.  
  
Still, it was better than nothing. She was supposed to meet Severus on the pitch at 10:00. From there, it would be easy to get into the forest undetected. She took her broom in one hand and her wand in the other, and crept downstairs and through the portrait hole. As soon as she closed the portrait, she cast the spell. But she realized almost at once that she couldn't hold it for more than a few seconds.  
  
She flickered in and out of visibility all the way down to the castle doors. By the time she got outside, the continuous spell casting had worn her out. Instead, she put her wand away and hopped on her broom, flying low to the ground, and as fast as she could toward the pitch. She'd just reached the entrance when another airborne body collided with her and they both fell sprawling to the ground.  
  
"Sev?" she gasped, the wind knocked out of her. He struggled for a moment, then offered her a hand to help her up.  
  
"Sorry. The moon's behind a cloud and I never even saw you! Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah, let's get this over with!" 


	4. Chapter 4 Maverick

Chapter 4 ~ Maverick  
  
Severus kept his broom steady, weaving between trees with very little difficulty. Muriel wondered again why he hadn't tried out for the Slytherin Quiddich team, but didn't ask. As much as he enjoyed watching it, he never seemed to want to play.  
  
They found the berries with little problem, and Severus picked two from the highest branches, never getting near the ground. The nightshade bloomed only at midnight every full moon, so they had parked themselves in a tree to wait for the flowers to open when they heard a mournful howl. Muriel suppressed a shudder, and drew her dangling legs up onto the branch.  
  
It couldn't even be 11:00 yet. They'd found the berries quickly. "I had an owl from Aunt Rosa," Muriel whispered into the silence. The moon was bright enough that she could see it shining off her friend's hair as he sat on a branch somewhat lower than hers. He turned his face to her, and she could see his eyes, shining black in the moonlight.  
  
He didn't respond, so she continued. "She's worried about Papa. I think he told her something about Mother's friends. I think - " she stopped. Severus' father had taken the Dark Mark and vowed to serve the Dark Lord only two years before. "She said she was glad I was keeping busy at school, which means she's pleased I'm not home for Christmas. Something must be happening."  
  
Severus nodded into the darkness. He had known it would only be a matter of time before Mrs. Deesia took the mark as well. She was a powerful witch, and Riddle had been wooing her to his cause for ages. "Does she think Papa will take the mark too?" he asked finally.  
  
"I couldn't tell. But if he doesn't, he could be in a lot of danger. With your father and my mother both involved, it will be hard for him to say no. Your mother has the excuse of feminine weakness, but Papa - " she trailed off. She loved Severus' mother, but the woman had been pretending to be a weak witch for years. She'd succeeded in convincing both her husband and the Dark Lord that she would be of little use as their pawn. Muriel had a hard time respecting that. Why not just say no and face the consequences?  
  
Severus looked away. His mother was not weak. If anything, he was impressed that she could live through what she did, and he knew that she only stayed with Father because of him. However, Mur was right. His mother put on a good act, but Papa wouldn't be able to use the same excuses.  
  
He heard her whisper an apology from above him, but didn't turn his eyes back to her.  
  
When the flowers finally opened, they glided to the ground on their brooms, Muriel holding a wand in each hand and keeping watch while Severus picked the first bloom. They only needed one petal, so they were in the air again in a moment.  
  
As they turned their brooms back toward the school, they heard several howls and a frantic neighing, along with shouts. Werewolves.  
  
Without a word, they turned their brooms toward the sound and arrived in a small clearing a few minutes later. The clearing was glowing with a silver light, and their eyes were drawn to the beautiful unicorn, which was stamping angrily in the midst of a circle of wolves.  
  
They hovered at the edge of the trees, watching as the unicorn lunged at first one wolf, then another. "Werewolves don't attack other animals," Severus whispered. As the unicorn charged a third wolf, her body shifted out of their line of sight to reveal a man, silhouetted against her glow. He was brandishing a wand, but his spells were glancing harmlessly off the crouching figures around him.  
  
Severus shot toward them without thinking. Pulling his broom to a halt above them, he hollered down to the trapped man. "Grab my broom, I'll get you into the trees!"  
  
The man looked up, startled. "But!" he gestured wildly at the unicorn.  
  
"They're after you, they'll leave her alone when you're gone!" Severus shouted back. Muriel watched with worry as the man grabbed the front of Sev's broom and let himself be hauled out of the closing circle. When they were high enough in the air, Sev brought him back into the trees. The wolves followed, leaving the unicorn to stand serenely in the center of the clearing, watching.  
  
Severus brought the man close to a branch, which he scrambled onto gratefully, as Muriel flew to meet them.  
  
"Werewolves don't run in packs," Severus said accusingly to the frazzled young man. Sure enough, when they looked below, none of the wolves had followed them into the trees.  
  
To their surprise, the man's wild look disappeared to be replaced by a wide grin. "That's a fact, young sir," he said, without a trace of remorse. Muriel was confused.  
  
"Then, what were they?"  
  
It was Severus who answered her. "Illusions. He wanted to see what we'd do. He must have noticed us in the forest." The man was nodding. Muriel noticed that his hair, which he had obviously charmed to be the odd mixture of brown and red that shone strangely in the moonlight, was very long. It fell over his eyes. He was younger than she'd expected, probably in his early twenties. He was very handsome.  
  
"Had to find out just what kind of people would be out gathering nightshade so close to my cabin, now didn't I?"  
  
"You live here?" she asked incredulously. Severus was looking at her oddly now and she couldn't help but blush. Had he caught something of what she was feeling just now? She hoped not, and quickly thrust the thoughts away, looking at the man again with a colder gaze. "Who would want to live in the forest anyway?" she asked haughtily.  
  
A half an hour later found Muriel and Severus slipping into a small cabin, much like the gamekeepers hut back at Hogwarts. Their host began making tea and Severus threw his cloak over the back of the first chair.  
  
"Now, then," the man said happily, "who are you two and who are you trying to poison with that nightshade?" Severus and Muriel exchanged an anxious glance before introducing themselves.  
  
Sev proceeded to explain the potion he hoped to make. He even showed him that they hadn't gathered enough of either ingredient to make a deadly poison.  
  
"Thanks," Muriel said, accepting the teacup the man offered her. His eyes were very blue, and wide, and she couldn't help smiling as he looked down at her.  
  
"You never mentioned your name," she said quietly as Severus scowled at her. She ignored him.  
  
"Riddel," he said, "But everyone calls me - " he stopped speaking as Muriel's cup crashed to the floor and she fumbled for her wand. When he turned, he saw that Severus had also drawn his wand and was pointing it at him, his face deadly calm.  
  
"Maverick," he finished, still smiling. My name is Tomkin Maverick Riddel, but everyone calls me Maverick."  
  
Severus scowled, then put away his wand. "I guess you were named before anyone had ever heard of the Dark Lord?" he asked coldly. He watched as Muriel fixed her cup, and used the hem of her robes to soak up the tea she'd spilled. Her cheeks were very red and he scowled as the older man laughed.  
  
"No one had ever heard of Tom Riddle when I was born. He was just getting out of school himself."  
  
Muriel listened as the boys talked, too embarrassed to join in. Neither the Snapes nor the Deesias had ever introduced Tom Riddle to her or Severus, so they couldn't have known what he looked like. It wasn't until the subject of unicorns came up that she found the courage to speak again.  
  
"How did you get so close to that unicorn? I read somewhere that they prefer girls," she said quietly.  
  
"I live here in the woods because I wanted to study unicorns. I've lived here ever since I finished school. I met Adella Grace, the unicorn you saw tonight, in my 6th year during one of my more reckless moments. She ran off several centaurs, but then left. I've been following her around ever since. Every year she lets me get a little closer.  
  
Muriel looked up sharply. There was more to it than that. She could feel that Maverick cared a great deal for this particular unicorn, and thought that was a bit odd. Still, unicorns were purity incarnate, and she had loved them all her life as well.  
  
Severus set down his tea and picked up his cloak. "If we don't want to get caught, we'd better get back to the castle."  
  
Maverick looked disappointed, and Muriel thought suddenly that it must be very lonely out here, with no humans around. A moment later, the look vanished and he smiled at them again. "Well, you two don't seem to have much trouble traversing the forest. Maybe you'll come back and see me again some time?"  
  
"Sure," Severus said gruffly as Muriel blushed and stood up.  
  
"Of course!" she exclaimed, glad to have been invited back. She ignored the look Severus was giving her as she shook Maverick's hand primly.  
  
Maverick watched them fly off, shaking his head. Second year students in the forbidden forest on the full moon. No one would ever believe him. 


	5. Chapter 5 Brewing Blue

Chapter 5 ~ Brewing Blue  
  
"I thought he was very nice!" Muriel couldn't believe that Severus wanted to argue about Maverick, here in the library of all places. She crossed her arms and pressed her lips together.  
  
He rolled his eyes, but didn't look up from his book. "Mur, he set us up, tested us, and then dropped his last name to scare us. He's a prat!" He thumbed through several more pages as she scowled at him from across the table. "Here it is!" he said suddenly.  
  
She leaned forward, their disagreement forgotten, as he put the book on the table. The potion wasn't very complex, after all, it was in a practical joke book. He tore out the page when Madam Pince turned her back and returned the book to the shelf, still amazed that they'd even had it. He had been afraid he'd have to owl home for his own copy, and if his father had gotten the owl, there would have been all kinds of trouble.  
  
It was late, but they wanted to start the potion right away, now that they had the ingredients. Mur knew they couldn't make it in the Ravenclaw common room. The older students usually turned a blind eye to her antics, but nightshade was easily recognizable, and that would lead to some awkward questions. The Slytherin common room was off-limits too. Most of them wouldn't actually hex her anymore, but they would certainly love a chance to turn her in. More importantly, Avery might be there, and she'd been taking special care to avoid him.  
  
They stood warily outside the mirror on the fourth floor that Malfoy had mentioned to Severus, trying to determine how to open it. Severus tried every password he could think of. It wasn't until Muriel tapped it with her own wand and said, "Aperto," that they finally heard a click.  
  
Severus smiled. Italian passwords in an English castle. Only at Hogwarts.  
  
They looked around the crude room carefully. At the other end there was a tunnel, but they had no time for exploring tonight. Severus ran back down to the Slytherin dormitory for his cauldron, while Mur conjured candles and a fire. The potion was supposed to take two days to brew. What if the marauders used this tunnel too? Surely they would notice the cauldron over a fire in the corner.  
  
When Severus returned, she asked him about it. "We'll just have to make sure they aren't in any condition to run around the castle," he said wickedly, smirking. She shook her head.  
  
"One prank at a time, Sev. Let's spend some time figuring out how we're going to get them to drink it!" She propped herself against the wall to watch him as he began the potion, and promptly fell asleep.  
  
Severus shook her awake around two in the morning. "Come on, we need to get back!" The potion was as close to ready as it was going to get, now it just had to simmer.  
  
Potions class was particularly tense after Christmas. Their crowd of friends was annoyed that they hadn't come to the annual Christmas party. Severus and Muriel had nearly finished when something slimy flew in from the hallway and hit the edge of their cauldron before slopping messily into their potion. It made a nice high fountain that brought Professor Warrington over immediately. Avery had apparently taken Muriel's absence as a personal affront.  
  
The professor was in a very bad mood indeed when he found that their potion, supposed to be a pale green color, was in fact an almost incandescent, florescent blue. Several people had seen what happened, but no one had seen who was in the hallway. As Professor Warrington questioned the rest of the class, Severus filled a small vial with the florescent liquid, winked at Mur, and put it into his pocket.  
  
He definitely wanted to know what had gotten into their potion. He could test it later.  
  
They met Wednesday night behind the mirror, and found their potion undisturbed. "Well, what color would you like them to be?" Muriel asked lightly.  
  
Severus had come up with the perfect idea. "Well, our blue potion is an awfully nice color, don't you think?" he asked, pulling the half-filled vial out of his robes. Muriel looked at it warily.  
  
"But what about all the other ingredients we added to that? Are you sure none of them will react and make this potion dangerous?"  
  
Severus waved a hand impatiently. "Of course not. There wasn't anything dangerous in it!" Muriel raised an eyebrow before nodding.  
  
"Alright. It is a funny color!"  
  
Severus extinguished the charmed flame under the cauldron, stirred it several times, and poured in the vial's contents. The potion hissed and spit before turning a shocking shade of blue.  
  
"Now, how do we get them to drink it?" Severus asked.  
  
Muriel giggled, and produced a forged note from Madam Pomfrey. She'd been careful to curse all the boys, even Remus, with a hex that she and Severus had come up with when they were younger. It had given each of them a noisy ringing in their ears that they'd been putting up with all day, but when they'd gone to Madam Pomfrey, she couldn't help them. After all, no one had ever heard of that particular hex before. It was designed to wear off after 2 or 3 days.  
  
Boys, I am sending up this potion with a house elf. It should help with your ears. There may be a small side effect, but the ringing should go away in 2 days or so. ~Madam Pomfrey  
  
"Bloody Brilliant!" Severus exclaimed. Muriel beamed. Compliments from Severus were a rare treat indeed. They snuck down to the kitchens. Malfoy had taught Severus how to get in last year, so he wouldn't have to go for food himself. The house elves were more than happy to take the potions to Gryffindor tower to "help out the marauders. "  
  
Remus awoke first, and blinked several times. The curtains above his bed were blue. They had been up very late sitting in the common room talking and he wasn't sure that his eyes could be trusted. He closed them again.  
  
No, his bed hangings were definitely blue. In fact -  
  
"JAMES! SIRIUS! PETER! Get up mates, we're in trouble!" Remus threw back his curtains to see that all the beds were blue. He went to the dresser to get something to wear, but when his hand touched the handle, the entire dresser turned blue. He swore loudly.  
  
By now the other boys were awake too. Peter was looking from his own bright blue hands to Remus' blue face and back again. James was looking at the pile of blue robes on the floor. They had been black yesterday, he knew.  
  
Sirius jumped up and grabbed the note from Madam Pomfrey, which promptly turned blue in his hand. His face was twisted into a snarl. "They got us again!" he spat, throwing the parchment away from him in disgust. 


	6. Chapter 6 Retribution

Chapter 6 ~ Retribution  
  
"Why are their robes blue?" Muriel, like the rest of the great hall, was laughing hysterically as the marauders stomped to their table and sat down. The laughing stopped abruptly, however, when James reached for a glass of water, which promptly turned blue when he touched it.  
  
Sirius threw a stack of blue books heavily down on the table beside him and looked for Muriel. He KNEW that this was her fault somehow. James was gazing intently at Severus, since it had to have been he who brewed the potion. They were all furious. Muriel was really looking forward to Defense Against The Dark Arts today.  
  
Marisa prodded her as she ate, and she turned to her. "Sirius is staring at you," she whispered.  
  
Muriel stifled her laugh. "Can you blame him?" she asked quietly. Marisa couldn't help but laugh, and turned back to look at the marauders. Their silverware, plates and drinks were all blue. They were whispering furiously among themselves. Suddenly Sirius stood up, his fist pounding the table with a loud 'thunk'. Every Gryffindor gasped as the entire table turned blue. Sirius threw one last angry glance at Muriel before he stomped out of the hall.  
  
Muriel couldn't help but laugh, even though she knew that James and the others were still watching her.  
  
She met up with Severus in the hallway on her way to class. "You didn't say that it would turn everything they TOUCHED blue too," she hissed, still giggling in spite of herself.  
  
He looked abashed. "I didn't think it would. Mur, what if it doesn't wear off like it's supposed to?" He sounded really worried.  
  
Muriel stopped laughing abruptly. She didn't bother to ask him why he hadn't thought of that before. "Then I guess we'd better come up with an antidote," she whispered back. He left her outside the Dark Arts classroom, and heard her chuckle again, presumably because the marauder's desks were already blue.  
  
Mur sat close to the door, in case she needed to make a quick get away. Unfortunately the boys had already hatched a plan. Only a few minutes before the bell, Peter faked a swoon and fell to the floor. Sirius had his hand in the air and James had laid his head on the desk tiredly. "Yes, Mr. Black?"  
  
"Sir, we aren't feeling very well. Whatever was in that potion Madam Pomfrey gave us is.is." he trailed off, letting his eyes droop. Remus watched as a worried expression crept over Muriel's face and tried not to smirk. It had definitely been her.  
  
Professor Warrington excused them to go to the Hospital ward. Deesia was closest to the door, so he sent her along to levitate Peter, reminding them not to touch anything on the way. No sooner had the door closed behind them than Sirius, James and Remus dropped the act and grabbed Muriel from all sides. Sirius put a hand on her face, Remus grabbed her hand, and James made sure her robes were blue as well.  
  
Far from being surprised, she stood there and let them do it. She looked hard into Sirius Black's now blue eyes. "It'll wear off soon enough anyway, boys," she said condescendingly, hoping she was right. She grabbed Sirius wrist and threw it back at him angrily. Peter was still levitating nearby, so she flicked her wand, making him fall hard to the ground. She noticed that her wand had not turned blue. Well, that was some consolation.  
  
A week later found her in a bed in the Harmless Hex ward. "Actually, Mur, I don't think it will wear off." Severus was standing several feet from her while Professor Warrington looked on, enraged, but silent. "Well," he clarified quickly, "THEY will go back to their original color, but anything they touched won't." His voice was very low.  
  
"Severus, you will find an antidote for this, and you will find it NOW!" Muriel was shaking with rage.  
  
"I'm working on it!" he exclaimed irritably. "It's just that Avery won't tell me what he threw into our cauldron." He clapped a hand over his mouth and turned to look at Professor Warrington.  
  
"It was Avery, eh?" The professor swept out, and Muriel and Severus exchanged a glance.  
  
"Do you think he'll be able to make him talk?" she whispered. Severus felt awful as he shrugged and sat down in the nearest chair. This was all his fault. He should never have used that potion when he didn't know what was in it.  
  
Three days later, Professor Warrington had finished the potion. Avery had been helping him during detention each night, and stood sullenly in the Harmless Hex ward as Muriel drank it. It took nearly an hour for her skin to return to its normal color. She spent the entire hour glaring at Avery.  
  
When Professor Warrington was satisfied that his potion had worked correctly, he and Avery left a very perturbed Muriel alone with her thoughts. As she gathered up her homework from the table beside the bed, she swore that this was going to be the end of the pranks. She'd learned her lesson. She was going to leave those boys alone. They always managed to get back at her just a little better than she got back at them.  
  
She fumed all the way back to her dorm and threw herself into her homework with a passion. It was nearly Valentine's day before she even THOUGHT about hexing the marauders again. They, too, seemed to want something of a truce. Sure, she'd gotten a set of house elf ears in the hallway once since then, but one hex in over a month was nothing. She hadn't even tried to find out which one of them had done it.  
  
On February 14th, a huge black owl she didn't recognize landed in front of her at breakfast, followed quickly by a smaller, tawny owl. Both dropped bright blue envelopes in front of her before flying off. The smaller owl picked up a grape from her plate and hooted happily as it followed the first. By the end of breakfast, two more owls had dropped blue envelopes in front of her, and her dorm mates were giggling annoyingly. She had pushed away her food, and stared at the offensively colored objects, refusing to lift her eyes to the Gryffindor table. "The great prats!" she exclaimed. She shoved the letters into her bag and stormed out, heading straight for the History of Magic classroom.  
  
She opened the first envelope, holding it out away from her in case it had a hex in it, but nothing happened. There was only one word written on the parchment, "Facio," she whispered. She wasn't very good at Latin, though she spoke Italian fluently. She was sure it meant to cause, or something like that.  
  
The second letter only said, "Noceo." She whispered this as well, shaking her head. She had no idea what that meant.  
  
She opened the next one. "Sero. That means 'late', doesn't it?" she said to herself. It didn't make any sense.  
  
When she opened the final envelope, it blew an obnoxious raspberry at her before all four envelopes caught fire on her desk. In a moment they were gone, and she wiped the ashes away hastily as Professor Binns entered through the blackboard and several students appeared in the doorway. What in the world could they have meant?  
  
She found out late that night, when she awoke with a horrible ache in every muscle she had, and many she hadn't been aware of. The soft sheets of her bed chaffed against her skin, and when she reached for the doorknob, panicking, to get to the hospital wing, the cold metal seemed to burn her. Everything she touched caused agony.  
  
She stood still in the hospital ward, shivering in her thin nightgown, as Madam Pomfrey looked up counter charms. Muriel had written the words down for her, although the quill had pinched her fingers horribly.  
  
The nurse cast spell after spell, but nothing seemed to do the trick. Finally, she sent for the Headmaster.  
  
After several failed spells, read out of a huge and dusty tome, Dumbledore came up with the correct counter curse, and Muriel stopped shivering abruptly and began to shake with fury instead.  
  
Her head cleared enough that she could think. But the only thought that popped into her head was, 'Of all the rotten things to do, tricking me into hexing myself had to be the worst.' She wondered if the horrible prats had had the guts to sneak out in that cloak of theirs to see how much they'd hurt her. She concentrated on their images as she left the hospital ward, a blanket of Madam Pomfrey's wrapped around her. Sure enough, she could feel them nearby, though she was surprised at all the conflicting emotions. At least SOMEONE among them felt bad about it.  
  
'Good,' she thought angrily. She knew she could easily make them all feel sorry for it, and as soon as she was sure Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore hadn't followed her into the corridor, she sat down next to the wall, wrapped her arms around her knees and cried for all she was worth.  
  
It was quite a bit later when she realized that the marauders had long since slipped away, and she was crying for herself instead of for them. Why did they hate her so much? Most of her pranks had been harmless enough. She'd only been teasing, after all.  
  
She looked up, suddenly angry again. Well, all that was going to change. If they could cause her this much pain, then there was no reason why she couldn't do the same to them. She picked herself up and marched back to her dormitory, the tears drying on her face. "Just wait," she whispered quietly to herself as she climbed the stairs. "You're all going to regret this." 


	7. Chapter 7 Eye of the Storm

Chapter 7 ~ The Eye of the Storm  
  
Severus found himself staring at Muriel again as they studied together in the library. Just under her calm surface was a boiling rage that was nearly tangible, though she wouldn't tell him why.  
  
What really surprised him was that the marauders had stopped hexing her almost entirely. Of course, they still tried to hex him daily. He'd been to the Harmless Hex ward at least twice each week, and he had yet another detention tomorrow, because he'd been caught trying to get back at them. Unluckily, but justly, Professor McGonagal had noticed that Potter had hexed him first, and now he would have to sit through detention with the egotistical prat.  
  
He hoped Professor McGonagal would just let them study. With year-end exams coming up, he was starting to get antsy about some of his classes.  
  
He took his books with him to detention, just in case. When he arrived, Potter was already sitting at the back of the classroom, so Severus took a seat in the front. He was unpleasantly surprised when Lupin came in a moment later. He narrowed his eyes. Lupin had nearly let Muriel die at the end of last year because he hadn't NOTICED that she was practically falling over. He really didn't like Lupin.  
  
Remus noticed Severus' angry look and headed toward James, biting back the question he'd hoped to ask. Sirius had tracked down one of Mur's dorm mates once when Muriel had skipped dinner, to ask how she was. She had turned her eyes to him innocently and replied, "angry," in a tone of voice that told him he'd best not ask further.  
  
Remus had approached her on only one occasion and found himself bound and gagged before he'd finished his apology. She'd left him in a passageway he hadn't ever seen before, somewhere down near the Slytherin dungeons. The Slytherin prefect, Lucius Malfoy, had found him and taken points from Gryffindor, though Remus hadn't actually done anything wrong. He looked later, but never found that passageway again.  
  
In all, the student body of Hogwarts was breathing a sigh of relief. For all intents and purposes, it appeared the feud was over. But the marauders knew better.  
  
"I wish there was some way we could tell her that we never meant for it to be that bad," Remus said quietly as they sat in the common room one Saturday afternoon. They had finished most of their end-of-year tests, and none of them felt like studying. Peter nodded morosely. Sirius just stared hard into the fire.  
  
James rolled his eyes. He still wasn't convinced that it HAD been that bad. His friends were all acting as if they'd put her life in danger. Even Peter seemed to feel guilty. "Come on! She's hexed us hundreds of times. She even knocked Peter down and gave him a black eye in that scuffle last term."  
  
Peter, never sure who to agree with when his friends fought, nodded again. Remus spared him an annoyed glance. "I think she was just in a hurry, and you two paid her back well enough for that. We should have found out more about the spell before we used it."  
  
Peter nodded at this statement as well, and James prodded his leg with his foot. "Shut up, Peter!" he exclaimed, though the boy hadn't said anything. "What do you think, Sirius? Should we be in here worrying about Deesia, or outside tossing the quaffle around?" The whole thing had been Sirius' idea in the first place, and James was sure his best mate would back him up.  
  
They all fell silent as several feet clattered down the stairs from the girls' dormitory. Lily and three of her dorm mates were headed outside to enjoy the warm spring weather. James looked back at his friends. "Er.I'll be outside," he said, distracted. None of his friends had any doubt as to why. James followed Lily every chance he got.  
  
After a moment, Peter left too. Sirius sat, still gazing into the fire. He'd found the spell in one of his father's old books years ago, and he knew he should have gone back and researched it before they'd sent it to her. He was trying desperately to think of some way to get things back the way they had been. Life at Hogwarts was pretty boring now that Muriel wasn't playing pranks on them anymore. He was also a little worried about what she would choose when she DID decide to get back at them. If she was as angry as everyone said, it would probably be pretty bad.  
  
"I think I'll head to the library," Sirius said finally. Remus nodded and watched his friend leave the common room without his books. None of them had tried to talk to Muriel since Malfoy had found Remus in the dungeon passageway. That had been two weeks ago, and it was probably time to try again. Remus didn't offer to go with him.  
  
But it didn't matter, because neither she nor Severus was in the library. Of course, Sirius wouldn't have bothered to ask Snape anyway. They had learned right off the bat that the quickest way to get hexed was to mention Muriel to Snape. 


	8. Chapter 8 Advice and a Long Talk

Chapter 8 ~ Advice and a Long Talk  
  
"These words, what do they mean?" Maverick was looking at the parchment Muriel had brought to show him. She'd sneaked into the forest at dawn without Severus, since he hadn't seemed too keen to visit Maverick.  
  
"I looked it up. Roughly translated, it means to make hurt late. What the curse does is to cause the person who speaks it a great deal of pain at midnight." She spoke quietly, her eyes on his. The fireplace crackled merrily behind her, but she didn't feel merry at all. She sipped her tea. "Madam Pomfrey said that it would have happened every night for the rest of my life until Professor Dumbledore found the right counter curse." She shuddered. It wasn't exactly the Cruciatus Curse, but it hadn't been pleasant either.  
  
The young man had trimmed his red-streaked brown hair until it was above his ears and eyes, and Muriel decided she liked it better, even if it did remind her a little of Remus. She had thought that at least HE had some common decency. But each of the boys had sent a letter, so she knew he'd been involved.  
  
"You're something of an empath, aren't you?" Maverick asked suddenly, setting down the paper. He had suddenly felt a wave of anger that he was pretty sure wasn't his own.  
  
Muriel sighed. "I'm a natural Legilimens. I can usually tell what people are thinking and feeling if I'm in the room with them." She felt his mind close slightly and smirked a bit before continuing. "And if I'm feeling a strong emotion, just about anyone near me can feel it too. It's really amazing that more people haven't caught on by now." She smiled at him properly.  
  
"The really neat part is that I can cast the Legilimens curse from a distance. I could read Severus' mind right now, even though he's all the way back at the castle." Maverick was looking at her in surprise. So far as he knew, no one could do that.  
  
"On the record, it hasn't ever been done before," she added. She could catch the gist of his thoughts even as he tried to keep her out. He obviously hadn't practiced Occlumency.  
  
"But that's not what I came to talk about. I've spent the last few months trying to decide how I'm going to get back at them. I'm looking for something that will make sure they never DARE to do that again."  
  
Maverick smiled, wondering what she could possibly hope he would provide her with. He didn't have long to wait before she explained.  
  
"I want to know how you did that illusion with the werewolves. I know at least one of them is deathly afraid of them, and they all will be, when they think they've forgotten which day is the full moon."  
  
If Maverick caught the implication, he didn't let on. "So you want to scare them?" he said quietly. He thought it strange that the girl had been through a curse as powerful as the one on the parchment and all she wanted to do was scare the people responsible.  
  
Her face took on a rather grim look. "I borrowed one of the Arithmancy books from the restricted section and came up with the perfect spell to get back at them. It's a combination of a tongue swallowing spell, and a transfiguration spell that turns a tongue into flesh eating maggots." She noticed the look of horror on his face and changed her tone when she continued. "But I really don't want to end up in Azkaban for killing them, so I'll settle for scaring them instead," she finished lightly.  
  
As she'd sat in the library each evening since February, she had come to the conclusion that the marauders had really felt bad about what happened. She was angry, but nothing like she'd been that night. Mostly, she just wanted things to go back to the way they had been, and she was sure that they were just waiting for another prank from her before everything went back to normal.  
  
But it had to be something good. Something that would set the new upward boundary high enough to keep things interesting, but low enough that no one would get hurt anymore.  
  
Maverick was still smiling. One minute the little girl in front of him was furious, and the next minute she thought something was funny. She obviously couldn't make up her mind how she felt about the situation. He felt obliged to try and guide her, even though he wasn't very good with kids. She was, after all, the only company he'd had for quite some time, and he'd never had a little sister.  
  
"I don't think you should use werewolves," he said knowingly. She looked disappointed, but nodded.  
  
"You're right, that would be too close to home for them. I'm crossing a different kind of line there." She didn't want to cause them, in this case specifically Remus and Sirius, enough emotional trauma that everything would stay tense.  
  
Maverick talked her out of bothering the marauders again this year. He was certain that everything would go back to normal after the summer. Or at least he was sure that she would be level headed enough by then to come up with pranks that were truly harmless. He had a feeling that maybe she didn't hate those boys as much as she pretended. Much like his pretty unicorn, who'd spurned him and saved his life in the same day, only to spurn him again. He was starting to think that girls and unicorns weren't that very different. 


	9. Chapter 9 Forgiveness

Chapter 9 ~ Forgiveness and a Return to Normalcy  
  
Sirius had searched the library and the grounds. He tried not to feel disappointed, since he had no idea what he'd planned to say if he found her. He'd already decided not to apologize. Blacks were never wrong. They just made mistakes sometimes.  
  
Muriel swore softly to herself. Here, behind the greenhouses, was the only place where she could come out of the trees and not be seen from the castle. So of course, Sirius Black had to be sitting with his back against the greenhouse, staring into the wood.  
  
She dismounted her broom and carried it warily out of the trees, carefully affecting disinterest as he scrambled up and pulled out his wand. She didn't have anything to say to him, so she just walked on by. She knew better than to turn her back on him when he had his wand out, but hoped that their unspoken cease fire would hold long enough for her to get back to the castle.  
  
"Deesia!" he called, when he realized that she wasn't going to hex him.  
  
She turned, disbelief written on her face. Was he really stupid enough to taunt her after what she'd done to Remus? She sneered at him but waited. He didn't move.  
  
Finally she asked, "What do you want, Black? I have a test left to study for." Her voice was cold, but she didn't go for her wand. If he'd wanted to hex her he would have done it already. He didn't answer, so she turned around and headed back to the castle. Strangely enough, she didn't feel quite so angry anymore. She could tell plainly that he'd been looking for her, and there could only be one reason why. She wondered if he'd tell on her for being in the forest, but decided he probably wouldn't. Potter might have, but not Black.  
  
Sirius followed her back to the castle. When she realized he was there, she threw him a sarcastic smile and jumped on her broom to fly the rest of the way. He smirked, feeling like everything was back to normal. He'd talk James into leaving her and Severus alone for the last few days of term, and next year, things could go back to the way they were. And he hadn't even had to apologize. Thank Merlin. If word ever got back to his mother that he'd apologized for something, he was sure to learn a new dark arts curse the hard way. Blacks didn't apologize to anyone.  
  
Severus noticed a difference in Muriel as he worked beside her during their potions test on Monday. Her hands were steady, and she was able to concentrate for the first time in ages. She finished her potion not long after he did, corked a beaker full and took it up front. She graced him with a real smile when she got back to her seat to find that he'd cleaned up her cauldron. He always did in class, too, but she hadn't smiled at him for it in nearly two months.  
  
He gave her a questioning look, but she only winked at him and put her things back into her cauldron to wait for Professor Warrington to tell them they could go.  
  
They sat quietly out by the lake after their test, but instead of brooding, Muriel was writing a letter to her Aunt Rosa. Severus could only shake his head. Since he didn't know what had happened in the first place, he couldn't form the right questions to find out what had fixed it. In the end, he just accepted it gratefully. When Muriel spent the train ride home talking about the hexes she hoped to use on the marauders next year, Severus knew for sure that she was all right.  
  
FIN  
  
A/N: Year 3 for Severus and Muriel has already been written and will be posted as a new fic shortly! Look for it under my user ID: 468209. Along with all my other fics! Each one is numbered in the title, so if you picked up in the middle, you should be able to go back and catch the beginning. 


End file.
